For me, umpiring is just one part of my day to day activities. Working on all areas of life to try to get the most out it. I have recently changed my review and study processes slightly from rotating through my areas of study in half hour blocks to doing one large block of each area a week. That will need some explanation I am guessing.
Example :- say the areas of your life you are focussing on are your food study, umpiring, language learning, and of course my blog. So, I would study each of these ideally for 4 hours a week. Why 4 hours? Well, have you read any of Tim Ferriss' books? The four hour work week, the four hour body, the four hour chef. I am a fan and a listener to his podcast to help with my motivation on a daily basis. I figure if he can earn a living in 4 hours a week, then if I can work at studying for 4 hours a week and make significant inroads on my path to success.
Off track slightly. Let's get back. With the 4 study areas above I will attempt to complete one four hour study session a week plus I also have to add day to day things like tidying the house, home improvements, work/finance, renewal/ personal improvement, and recreational reading. I recently listened to one of Tim Ferriss' podcasts with Naval Ravikant, an investor and dot com start up guy with massive success. Tim asked him what change or piece of advice he would give to listeners to add value to their lives. He replied by saying to complete ten books a year. That incidently, isn't why I read. I just read for the pure enjoyment of it. Reading is also a great way to get new information and motivation and learning in a very leisurely way. Make time to read. It will improve your life.
So 4 hours on our core focus areas - Food Study (the blog address should give away that I'm a chef), umpiring, language learning (in my case Thai) and this blog. Add to these, day to day areas of wellbeing and improvement such as those mentioned above. Add to these half hour exercise sessions every other day and daily meditation for 30 minutes to make me a calmer member of the human race. Being married to a Thai, being calm is very important. Thai people have no respect for people who are Jai Rorn (ใจร้อน) or in English hot tempered. It is something I have had an issue with and meditation helps me to take a deep breath instead of blowing up (at least some of the time). I think it is also very helpful to umpiring. Incidently, I am currently studying each area for 2 hours a week. Gradually I am hoping to build up to 4 hours.
Within some areas I have specific things I do to study, in others it depends on priority or how I feel that day or week. In Cricket Umpiring, the study areas are playing conditions study, Laws of cricket study and examination and laws course review. I am also considering adding a fourth element being field craft and performance review. In fact, that sounds like such a good idea I might add it to the session I am scheduled to do tomorrow.
Explanation of what is the difference between playing conditions and laws: The laws of cricket are set by the governing body for cricket which is the London based MCC. When any cricket match is played around the world they will use those laws (or rules) to define how the match is played. Each match around the world will have variations to those laws and these variations are set down in the playing conditions handbook for the tournament or competition being held.
So I will do 30 minutes of each area and rotate through. If I get to doing 4 hours a week I will be doing 1 hour of each area. Playing conditions study involves me reading through the playing conditions for my next match and taking notes of the important points as I work my way through. I am umpiring in the Sydney Cricket Association Grade Cricket Competition.A new handbook comes out each season with changes made each and every year. Sometimes there are only a few changes, other years the changes are many and more significant. The handbook for the current season 2015/16 is 181 pages long. I guess you could compare it to a taxation account and how with every new year there are changes to laws which the tax accountant must stay up to date with in order to provide the best service to his or her clients. So too, in Umpiring we must stay current and provide for our clients (the cricketing elite of suburban Sydney). At the highest level of the game and what the general public see on their television screens over the summer is just another (albeit an elite level competition) example of a match or matches played under the laws of cricket with their own unique set of playing conditions. It is not uncommon for an umpire to have to explain to a player that something they see on the TV is in fact a playing condition of international cricket and is not applicable at the lower level of the game. An example of this is the playing condition at the highest level of the game which removes the use of a runner for an injured batsman. This is not a law change but just a change to playing conditions at the highest level. The laws of cricket at the MCC have not changed in this respect.
The next area of study is the study of the laws of cricket. In this case I just read for thirty minutes. As I read I constantly remind myself to read with and for comprehension and make sure I stop and organise the passages I have read in my mind before progressing. Currently we are using the 2000 code which is up to it's 5th edition which was printed in 2013. It is a small book ( 147mm x 116mm) but it too, contains 120 pages of information. There are 42 laws of cricket covering all areas pertaining to the conduct of a game of cricket. Some people, although I would never officially make this statement myself , have suggested that the laws are a wonderful inexpensive way of curing insomnia. Read for 20 minutes before bed and you will be out like a light. One of the most helpful things in cricket umpiring is the fact that most players have never read either the laws of cricket or the playing conditions that apply to their competition. I thought I knew the laws until I studied them. The fact that players don't generally know all the rules of play means that on occasion a confident umpire may be able to bluff his way through. From personal observation, that ability to bluff comes after your first decade as an umpire. When starting out and learning the laws for the first time it is more than useful to be guided by a good teacher. As an umpire in Sydney I am fortunate to have access to plenty of excellent teachers.
The course material that I received at the pre season laws course really simplify's the laws into more digestible chunks and is a great way to review and grow my knowledge of the game's rules of play. I was given close to 100 questions throughout the course and continually going through those is great for learning. The course notes themselves are also a good way of simplifying and explaining all I need to know when I take the field.
After studying all these theoretical areas of umpiring it is great to have now added a more practical area. That being field craft. For this there are study notes on many of the Umpiring association websites including at nswcusa.nsw.cricket.com.au and sscua.com.au . I may also in time take a trip to one of my local teams training sessions and just practice watching the ball and making decisions during a net session. A great way to get match practice. Concentration is the key out there in the middle on match day and I will also be looking in my practice sessions at ways to get ahead in that area.
After completing everything above I can feel confident when I head out onto the field on a Saturday. Hopefully I have been able to illustrate what goes into getting an umpire to match day and over time I will continue to enjoy the journey to being the best umpire I can be.
shop.lords.org/shop/gifts/books/laws-coaching/mcc-the-laws-of-cricket
http://nswcusa.nsw.cricket.com.au/
http://www.lords.org/mcc/laws-of-cricket/
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